The present invention relates broadly to agricultural tilling implements. More specifically it relates to a multi-function tilling implement for leveling, planting, and compacting the soil.
Traditionally, preparing and planting a field has been a multi-step process, involving many passes over a field by a farmer performing such tasks as leveling, plowing, planting, and agri-chemical application. With such a drawn out process the possibility of unforeseen interference by rain or other weather conditions is great. Much time and effort redoing previously performed tasks could be saved if all, or most, of the steps of field preparation and planting could be performed at one time.
The prior art in the area of farm implements points out many devices that can be used to ease the difficulty of each individual step, improved plows and disks for plowing, automatic seed placing machines for planting, and agri-chemical spraying mechanisms. But, few of these implements provide a means for accomplishing more than a couple of tasks at a time.
The many benefits of planting crops in raised beds or rows have long been recognized. These benefits include: accelerated warming of the soil, improved drainage of the plant row area and facilitation of furrow irrigation in the plant row area. Known methods and equipment used for incorporating chemicals into these raised rows have been unsatisfactory in their precision, as well as being time consuming multiple pass processes. These processes also require that agri-chemicals be applied in a broadcast manner rather than in a more efficient band or strip.
The present invention results in not only more efficient use of agri-chemicals, farm equipment, and fuel to operate the equipment; it also provides a means to save time and thereby labor. But, possibly the greatest savings that the present invention provides it to the land itself. Erosion is a concern for not only the conservationist but also for the farmer, for his livelihood comes from the soil. When a bedded field can be leveled, tilled, planted, and the soil treated and sealed all in a single pass, the likelihood of loss to unforeseen weather or to erosion is greatly reduced.
The prior art teaches in Smith U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,684 a minimum tillage tool comprising a "U" shaped shaper with horizontally extending blades and a planter towed behind said shaper. Shoemaker U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,360 teaches a minimum tillage implement employing a shaper for topping rows and a reel for tiling the area of the row. The top shaper is substantially horizontal and forward projecting to prevent dirt from spilling over the top. The reel has a number of blades evenly spaced about a shaft with tabs between the blades to allow it to roll smoothly and not clog. Brown et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,732 teaches a spider wheel for a rotary incorporator adapted to be towed in a given direction. Brown et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,850 teaches a rotary incorporator and spider wheel therefore, which has two rows of spider wheels each wheel with an individual axis of rotation. The second set of axes set at an acute angle to the first set. Peck U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,604 teaches a dual tillage implement with two rows of spider wheels, each spider also having an individual axis of rotation. Once again the axes of the second row are at an acute angle to the axes of the first row.
None of the above cited patents teach the total combination claimed by the present invention. None of them employ all the elements included in the present invention; a leveling device, a tillage implement, and a compacting implement, with means to apply agri-chemical and/or seeds. Additionally, the present invention provides for two gangs of spiders, each gang mounted on a common axle. Each gang is adjustable in such a way that the common axis of rotation of each gang may be placed at an acute angle to the other gang's common axis of rotation, resulting in a substantial mixing of the soil and the substances applied to it. Furthermore, these adjustments allow the gangs to be intermeshed, providing yet even more active incorporation of the soil, it's component moisture, agri-chemical, and seed dispersed by the implement.